Matt Damon was cageside at a UFC event and gave medical advice for a fighter's injury

The recent UFC 234 event was thrown into disarray when the main fight was pulled because of an injury to the reigning middleweight champion, Robert Whittaker.

The fighter was hospitalized in the 11th hour with a hernia, and the UFC boss, Dana White, believes he could be sidelined for four to six weeks.

White also said, however, that Matt Damon disagreed with him.

Damon played a doctor and botanist in the hit movie "The Martian" and once had hernia surgery. He told White the fighter could be out of action for longer.

Matt Damon was Octagonside at the UFC 234 event in Melbourne, Australia, on Saturday and apparently gave medical advice for an injured fighter.

The show's main event was supposed to involve a middleweight championship bout between the New Zealand-born Australian fighter Robert Whittaker and the challenger Kelvin Gastelum, but Whittaker, the reigning champion, withdrew from the fight in the 11th hour because of an injury.

The main event was subsequently pulled from the UFC 234 show, with White confirming the news that Whittaker had been hospitalized with a hernia.

"He's in the recovery room with his wife and his family," White said on Saturday, according to MMAFighting.com. "His bowel and his intestines poked through the hole … and it's one of those situations had it popped out during the fight, it could have been fatal."

White added that it "is really serious" and was a "freak, freak injury."

It is unclear whether a bout between Whittaker and Gastelum will be rearranged, but one thing is clear — Damon, who played a doctor, botanist, and astronaut in the 2015 hit movie "The Martian," expects Whittaker to be sidelined for more than a month.

That is according to White, who relayed the Hollywood actor's medical advice at the postfight press conference.

White was expecting Whittaker to recover in four to six weeks, but Damon apparently told White he once had hernia surgery and a four- to six-week recovery rate was "ridiculous." Damon said the champion could be out of action for longer.

With the main event in disarray, a middleweight fight between the former champion Anderson Silva and a rising star, Israel Adesanya, was promoted as the headline attraction. Adesanya won an impressive three-round decision.